As digital communication becomes more commonplace, the need for securing and/or authenticating the transferred digital data becomes increasingly more important. Digital signals carrying digital data is often (if not always) transformed into a specific format (e.g., by a transform) prior to being transferred. For example, a file containing digital data may be compressed prior to sending it over the Internet.
Since more powerful computers, high-speed Internet connections, and superior compression technologies are available to most users, the demand for digital media content is greater than ever. With instant and anytime access to literally millions of their favorite music and videos, consumers are applauding the convenience that digital distribution has afforded them. They enjoy being able to download or stream music to their hard drive or personal computer hard drive as fluidly as any television broadcast.
While the demand for digital content grows, however, so does the potential for its unauthorized use. Without a secure distribution system in place, digital media files can be easily copied or compressed into smaller files without the content owner's authorization. These files can then be transferred across the Internet for others to use or distribute freely. This violates the copyrights held by thousands of media companies, record labels, filmmakers, and recording artists. Such unauthorized use also strips these entities of valuable revenues as well.
One current approach is to encrypt the digital content to limit its unauthorized use. This approach, however, introduces additional overhead which can reduce the speed of systems utilizing signal transformation.
Accordingly, signal transformation solutions are desired which provide additional security while limiting performance degradation.